Oppum Gangnam Style!

So to start out a new blog about "around the world" in however I feel like it, I feel like it should be customary to start out with a bit of a bang. So what better way to do so than to start on the topic of "Gangnam Style" by the Korean artist 'Psy'?

It almost seems like this video needs no introduction. It's an insane, overnight sensation. In 3 months it has garnered (at the time of writing) 415 million views and counting, and does not look to go away any time soon. Now having more views than the population of America is spectacular in and of itself, but even more impressive when you consider that it's not American. It's not in English. It's Korean in fact.

One could argue so many things here, but let's get some generalizations about the American populace out in the forefront. The average American doesn't like things that are not in English. There's usually every few months a major political argument about why we shouldn't be teaching Spanish to elementary kids despite an ever growing Mexican and Central American influx of immigrants into our nation who all speak Spanish. Additionally, besides liking things in English, we like things to be familiar, and usually the furthest we'll go out is England and Canada, since perhaps we have more culturally in common with them than we do the rest of the world.

Perhaps though the latter is the more important point here, as I theorize its success is due to this. Even though it's not in English, it rides on the coat tails of another popular dance club song from last year, and I dare say uses it as a base reference. It became such a hit, I figure, because its rythmic beat has a catchy similarity to another song, perhaps could be looked at as a tribute with a Korean twist; and that's LMFAO "I'm Sexy and I Know It".

I do not at all mean to imply that Psy is copying or even ripping off LMFAO, not at all. I love both songs equally because they're both catchy, both humerous and neither taking themselves serious in the least. I'm saying Psy found a formula to overcome the language barrier that usually restricts Americans: speak to them with music they can understand.

This was certainly not what I expected when friends told me about it, but I'm glad that they did. Perhaps America will stop worrying about whether the lyrics are in English or not and just start enjoying the sound of music for what it is.

#music #videos #dance #electronic #club